Jones: Fining us for changes would be ‘ridiculous’

Mike Simmonds

Hatters boss Nathan Jones believes any penalty that Luton incur for making 11 changes during their EFL Checkatrade Trophy clash with Gillingham on Tuesday night would be ‘ridiculous’.

Town could be hit with a £5,000 fine for doing so, after competition rules stated they were supposed to play a certain number of ‘first team’ players.

“If we are going to get fined for those glory days, there seems to be something wrong.”

Nathan Jones

However, Jones opted to make 11 alterations, handing four debuts to academy graduates, and making Connor Tomlinson the youngest player to represent the club, at just 15 years and 199 days.

They went on to win the tie 2-1 against a far more senior Gills side thanks to goals from Frankie Musonda and Jonathan Smith as the Hatters chief said: “I’m not fussed about it.

“I don’t want to the club to get fined but it seems ridiculous to me when we play 11 young, talented, English players with five debuts, we make history in terms of the 15-year-old playing and we win a game against a very good Gillingham side.

“If someone wants to tell me that’s wrong, then there’s something not quite right with the world.

“For me, I’d be giving them accolades, not fining them.

“I know there are regulations but this is a long season and we have a tight squad and a talented squad who we trust and who we’ve hand-picked.

“They are ready as we saw in the result and in the performance. It was a glorious evening for Luton Town.

“So if we are going to get fined for those glory days, there seems to be something wrong.”